I've got no kids home, here. I can tune out the pets. The TV is too hard for the other to figure out, so it's off. I skip personal calls, if I don't have the time.
I will peek at my weather radar from time to time. (I can still peek when I'm in the office on lessor applications.)
Food? Don't have time to eat during the day.
Exercise? Guilty there. I'll keep the cordless on mute and jog around the yard on conference calls that last 10 times longer than they should. (At least I get the exercise.)
In the Office:
My iPod is broken, and the chatter boggles my mind when trying to code (when I'm awake). While I do have a parrot for a pet, he's less of an issue on conference calls.
Since they killed off telecommuting 3 days a week, the 180 mile commute leaves me "dead but dreaming" for the better part of the morning into the afternoon. (Not enough hours in the day, and going through heavy city traffic).
Tiny laptop monitor, vs. self purchased dual screen. Painful chair, vs. ergonomic (purchased). No mouse / trackball / keyboard, but for said company laptop. Bootup time is 1-2 hours, where I can leave it on, working from home.
Where I work, we've got a reactionary CIO who still believes that gas is $0.92 a gallon. (He also throws "cloud computing" under the bus, among other things.)
Really though, I had been graded top of my class for two years running. June 3rd, 2011 came as quite a surprise when many others, including myself, were told they had to either commute or leave the company. At first, they offered severance. Then this option was taken away. (More complicated, but I'll keep this short.)
Now we've got folks upside down on mortgages driving 180+ miles a day with gas fast moving towards $5 / gallon. (On cars that will be more than upside down.) Can't sell the house to move closer, and nor is there work available locally. I understand a manager in Iowa--at his own expense--takes a plane to Colorado, and rents a hotel room for the two days he's required to be present, then flies back. (Our executive was the hard-line, he requires three days in office.)
The touted benefits of "social interaction" are altogether missing, as most of the folks in a globalized company are remotely connected anyways. The forced relocations should have been to Chennai, India and not the office 90 miles away. Even our department is scattered throughout 7 states.
So: Any hints on where to find telecommuting friendly employers? Most of what I see online are either scams or auctions where the "employer" takes the lowest bidder. You spend more time looking for work--on very short term "contracts"--then making a steady income. I'm on Dice, but nothing is telecommute and minimum travel is 180 miles a day, if I'm lucky.
In today's driving extremism, it would be nice to have a 360 view around your car for lane changes and awareness.
Some vehicles already have "blind spot monitors", which check 90-170 deg, relative bearing, and 190-270 deg, likewise. Others have "adaptive cruise control" and "collision moderation", using radar to check relative velocity of the vehicle ahead. These don't always exist in combination. Some are range sensing devices, and some doppler. Here's my wish list:
I'd like a good resolution 360 scan, with dopper capacity, like todays weather radars...
1) See a 360 view: I know limitations exist: "first reach targets" would conceal targets behind. Example: You're left lane, passing a truck in the middle lane, and have a hot-head passing the truck in the right lane. 360 radar won't see this, if the truck echo masks the passing car in the right lane. But it would assist in quick lane changes, in tight quarters, if used intelligently.
2) See the "burner" behind you: This would be the stray motorbike or car driving 150 mi/hr, where you thought the lane was clear. Doppler would highlight that and flag a warning. This should extend a km or so to alert, independent of range setting.
3) See what you are about to hit: Some car nav systems do this already. In a more general sense it should be heading/steering aware with a narrow beam spotting stopped or slow traffic directly ahead. It needs to be smart enough to avoid reflectivity from signs, trees, etc. on the side, based on vehicle velocity and rate of turn.
4) If "2" or "3" exist, hang up the cellphone and yell at you with a prerecorded message from Chef Gordan Ramsay: "Drive, and don't talk, you donkey!"
That would work for me. The nearest developing tech, for marine use, is Simard BR-24 4G, with 2.5 deg scan width in X-Band (9.41 GHz) at just 167mW. (Most marine radars are 4KW, and will burn your glasses off if sitting too close.) FCC requirements has vehicle radar running at a higher band and even lower power. Have to wait and see if someone get's the niche. (Wish I had the resources).
I use a separate random user/password for each online account. If I post comments to "angryITworkers.com" (example), and the uid/password gets compromised, there's little to worry about. It cannot be used to access my bank account or other resources. Invalidate the compromised account, and damage will be very limited.
At my company, even the existing "non-overtime / exempt" allows the employer to put forth such abuse to IT employees that there were 4 recorded suicides out of the same building in a year. Oh... and that was when they treated their employees "better".
When you have a situation where an employer can ask for any number of hours as a condition of employment, it is ripe for abuse. It prolongs the buffer zone in which they can lay off IT workers, and pile the work on so 12-16 hour days are not uncommon. Meanwhile the folks left deal with the stress of the workload, no personal time for non work related responsibilities, and the constant nag in the back of their mind: "I'm I next to get the pink slip?" At a minimum, I know of several folks--including myself--developing stress related illness. Some of this is non-recoverable and will take years off your life.
My recommendation is to send the legislation straight to/dev/null, throw these buggers out at the next election, and push for actual improvements in working conditions. (Obviously things will have to be sequenced carefully to avoid an even stronger corporate rush to off-shore more IT work.)
-----------------
Change (n) - The actualization of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
Quite a few reasons I'm not a fan of IT, though I work there:
1. The jobs where you get to be creative no longer exist*. I started as an application developer / coder and thoroughly enjoyed it. (Though the boredom did set in as 2k of the 3k source code modules were strictly profit reports.)
*Unless you have a Ph.D. in computer science AND 35+ years experience in technologies that were only out for 2 years.
2. Where I am currently, IT is cannon fodder for every reduction. (This has been going on 2-4 times a year for the last 12 years.) Given the constant increase in additional responsibilities, hours are often unpleasant. They can get away with it, thanks to a loophole that allows abuse of "exempt" employees on overtime pay: If you are in IT they can ask you to work 24 hours a day as a condition of your employment, no overtime.
3. While I'm a "knowledge worker" in a "specialized field", I spend 90% of my time fighting the "cookie cutter" workstation image which breaks my development and security related tools. (Never mind the hour and a half reboots, corrupted file systems, occasional A/V scans in the middle of the day, failed automated installs and other periodic checks that make the machine unusable for at least 2 additional hours of the day.)
Had I seen all this coming, I would have left programming as a hobby and found some other way to make a living.
---
Change (n) - The actualization of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
That is very much me. The IBM Model-M is the only keyboard that lasts me more than a couple weeks. Back in the mid 90's, my IT dept was a little frustrated as I'd finish off the stock Dell and newer IBM keyboards in as little as 2 weeks. They finally found an old "M" and told me if I broke that one, there is no hope. When they talk about pounding code? Yes. Literally.
I agree: If you have to switch between keyboard and mouse frequently, it really does slow things down. For the sake of usability, I've always coded applications to fully support keyboard navigation and shortcuts. Poor application design often does have me turning a bit purple when I'm trying to get work done.
Having picked up on UNIX several years back, I also think that it's best practice to create command-line interface in addition to a GUI where practical. In my line of work, automation through shell scripts means getting the job done.
My learning started on the old Commodore computers, where I managed 80WPM on a modified hunt & peck. Later, I did take touch typing and was glad for it. (It makes it easy to spot mistakes as you type.) School had a range of equipment from the old mechanicals to IBM Selectrics and even newer models.
I know that the tablets and smartphones do require alternate methods. In my experience, the best one I've had was the palm Treo. With the touch screens it's a last resort to actually send information out on a smart phone. I still need my full sized keyboard.
I've heard of cases where people were charged for taping their arrests or interactions with police. I'd say if an officer compels an individual to not record the proceedings, the officer should be charged with obstruction of justice. The recording may have information pertinent should the case end up in court.
Agreed: It is the estuaries and salt marshes. It's the coastlines that have the greatest biodiversity, and therefore the most activity. Most of the open ocean is quiet, when it comes to sea life. The shallow areas got the vegetation, the sunlight, etc. Sea grass cannot grow below a certain depth. It's these shallow muddy areas that fish thrive in, leave eggs, and birds feed. The water is warmer, and the sea grass beds are food for Manatees, as well as providing shallow warm areas to swim in.
What I saw in LA state made me and a buddy sick. I'd say 10 days, and it's here where I live.
I'll help with cleanup, but no more swimming, and time to sell everything off and immigrate to Australia.
My taking is--if the emergency response equipment is not available--drilling should never have started. And, wow, I thought the Exxon Veldez was scary. Exxon was a one shot event. This gross misconduct is still going on, this very minute.
Some theorize the flow rate is even up to 4M gal/day. Recalling the Exxon Veldez, it was a one time shot of 10.8M petrol. This fiasco has been going on for > 30 days.
I really like the second paragraph, though I don't think it would adequately plug it. Maybe a layer of concrete--then toss them in--and more concrete.
Thirty-thousand horsepower pumps with high pressure drilling "mud", injected into the system, backwards. That is a lot of pressure feeding into ruptured pipes, which they think may be holding back the maximum flow. Could it make it worse? I'd say the possibility exists. It's an unknown.
As I understand it, the system failed on the well sealing process, when a cost savings measure was introduced: Replacement of the drilling "mud"--in the upper third of the column--with water to speed production. (It seems to me that "savings" were the whole idea behind the projects, at the expense of something you cannot put a price tag on.)
I'd say their "mud shot" will be met with failure, as well: Now you are resisting a high pressure flow on a source thousands of feet below the sea floor that has momentum.
Yet, BP has resisted scientific involvement, and even threatened reporters attempting to document the spill with arrest.
BP says there is no way to measure the flow, and that is a lie. We've had doppler radar since 1988, and I know doppler sonar would work; you can hear the difference in engine noise as they drive past. Doctors use the same tech to monitor cardiac conditions non-invasively. Yet they are not allowed in.
I'd say that the failure to release information should fall under Obstruction of Justice. Though I am certainly hoping that the courts are working hard to make an example out of these donkeys.
I've thought of it, myself. Though we do have some non-nuclear options, especially if they are designed in such a shaped charge as to not make a crater, but create an intense shear in the horizontal plane. It would need to be thick enough to bury the pipe and stop the leak. A spherical shock-wave would probably only make things worse.
Our GBU-43/B has quite a punch at > 22k lbs material.
Also, I was out at a beach 4 mi north of Venice, FL today, and the volatiles were certainly killing the sea breeze. The bulk is still better than 100 nm off shore, but on a light WNW wind reach, it was enough to have you clearing your throat. (Worse than allergy season, BTW).
The water is still clean, but I fear it might not be there much longer.
I guess NOAA has to build a new computer model for trajectories further south of 27.1*N. Models last night definitely had an indication of loop current entrainment.
Looking at the size of this, I don't think that you can put a price tag on it. Even if they seized all assets--personal and corporate owned--it still wouldn't do justice. (Unless someone can make a time machine real quick, and have the place raided about 24 hours before.)
I've been tracking for some time, and I think 210,000 US gal / day is too low. My conservative estimate is 5x that, given rate of change on the size of the NOAA trajectory plots, and on some satellite imagery I've looked at.
This year, the NWS has started the installation of RPG Build 10. This, which also requires an upgrade of the network at the forecast office--will increase the resolution of the WSR-88Ds enough to essentially double the range.
03 - Build 10 installed & the network updated to provide the LDM veed. 04 - Build 10 installed, but lacking the network upgrade. Data is derived to fit the legacy Level-II bandwidth. NULL - Still Build 9, and no status of the network upgrade.
Reflectivity products will go from 1km bins x 360 radials to 250m bins x 720 radials. Velocity products will go from 250m bins x 360 radials to 250m bins x 720 radials. Range is increased to 300nm.
Common users will not see an improvement with the upgrade, unless they get a NEXRAD Level-II data feed. What you see on TV and the Internet are based on Level-III (more products, but much less resolution.)
Legacy Level-II to Level-III comparison: There are 4-bits resolution on Level-III products, whereas Level-II has 8-bits. Level-III doppler products are limited to 1km bins x 360 radials. (Build 11--next year--though maybe not publicly available, will introduce 5 new dual-polarization products, some having 16-bit resolution.)
The WSR-88D's still have quite a bit of life left in them... Granted, more nodes that have doppler products would be a big plus. But Super Resolution L-II data will give a big improvement.
It always seems like technology is pushed just past the point of reliability.
I had exactly the same type of HD failure not even one month outside the warranty. It used to be at least 5-7 years before I would have problems with a drive. (By that time, the storage needs changed enough that the drive wasn't in "serious equipment" anyway.) It really came as a shock when I couldn't get a box to boot, and tested the drive on a FreeBSD installation, and found most of the sectors unreadable. (Windows wouldn't mount the drive, at all.)
Other examples:
I've never had luck with the 1.44MB floppies. I could do a full format, copy files, and find that the same drive could not read the files just 5 minutes later. The 720k disks never had this problem. Back in the C64 days, the 170k floppies would work for years before I had problems and had to get rid of one.
And 56k modems: I have never had one connect at full speed. The connections I could get would always drop, even on a clean phone line. I went back to my 28k--after trying several brands of the 56k--and never getting reliable results.
I have to ensure that I budget enough to replace a mainboard--and most of my other hardware that will be incompatible with the replacement--every two years. Just into the third year, the board will always fail.
I suppose we should soon expect optical storage, RAM and flash memory to meet the same minimal quality standards.
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Too much depends on reliable data storage, these days. Both hardware and software quality need improvement. I am really tired of spending more time maintaining equipment, than getting practical use out of it. It is all too convenient for hardware and software companies to exclude themselves from liability, and it needs to change.
I've been using Delphi since about 2000. I still do write apps with it occasionally.
Prior to using Delphi, I was using MS VB 5. I found Delphi to be about 500 times faster, and less likely to trash your project when moving it from one development workstation to another. Compared to VS 2003, the object libraries provided with the old Delphi 6 Pro were miles ahead in features and functionality, as well.
It was a little more difficult to get results from the debugger, compared with VB. But the other gains made it is worth while choice.
Delphi is still out there. They have a.NET compatible version, last I heard. There is also a lot of support and additional libraries available overseas. It was quite a bit more popular in Europe than in the States.
I agree with with theory on tactics similar to Enron:
I recall back in 1998, we were still around $1.05 a gallon, here. Summer came and went, and there were no spikes, no talk of "refinery issues" causing "supply problems", nor any talk of supply problems due to hurricanes, pipeline breaks, etc. Has usage increases? Yes, a news source--two or three years back--indicated an increase of only about 1-2%.
Some of it is China, India and the world economy. Some of it is supply of the crude required to make the gas, and problems with world politics, and dependence on foreign oil. But, this one is a problem right here at home.
Imagine the scenario:
1. Cut down severely the annual maintenance funding to keep the refineries operational. Why not even decommission a few? The cost of doing business has now been reduced, resulting in greater profit margins for the oil industry. 2. Now, when something happens--such as a hurricane, or equipment breakdown due to lack of maintenance--the lack of supply can result in even greater profits. These are maintained after the event to "rebuild the damaged infrastructure", even though there is plenty of money there already for that.
Enron did the same thing with their infrastructure.
They are living fat and happy at our expense, and we have no economic recourse to fight back. We basically have to live with it, because we need to get to work and back, operate machinery, etc. It's a win-win for them, and we lose, unless we can regain control through regulatory or legal means.
I don't drive an SUV...but since 1999, this has cost me thousands of dollars more than what I was paying prior to the increases. It sickens me to see all the excuses--every year--on why they need to drive prices still further. We don't just pay for this when we stop at the pump. Energy costs drive up the cost of everything: food, shipping, production, electric, trash disposal, etc. We pay again and again and again, when energy costs go up.
While Enron caused problems in a limited scope, the oil companies have made it a national issue. Their irresponsibility--in my opinion--is a danger to national security, and an act of treason, if we do have a real crisis. I would like to see the profits seized and put to work rebuilding the infrastructure, and some percentage put back into our pockets. Stronger regulations for the energy industry should also be instituted, preventing a recurrence.
Even so, we need to learn a lesson from this. One of these days, oil will go away. In the mean time, while alternative energy sources are investigated, we need to select more energy efficient means of transportation. We should also learn to how to save energy: more efficient driving styles, turning off equipment that doesn't need to be running, etc. This will give us more time to adjust to energy alternatives and reduce the impact when oil finally does dry up.
It seems that the only jobs that will remain available are those that require work on site. Most of these are low paying service related jobs, which don't even pay enough for basic survival. Couple that with the daunting increase in cost of living since 1999. (This is still going up.)
I think we need to look at reform, again:
If a company wants to be based in the US (and sell within the US) they should be required to maintain a quota of American workers in various positions. This should be audited by the Department of Labor. If not, they lose their charter or license.
Our economy was good before. I was able to pay my bills, and still have a good quality of life, with companies employing higher paid American workers, before the outsourcing craze. It can happen again...
I know there are pro's and cons to "protectionism", but that's my opinion. It may be one way of saving our economy.
I can understand the need to keep E-waste out of the environment...One thing that would good for both consumers and the environment: Quality improvement in products.
The last few years--especially--I've seen so many items that were either "broken out of the box", or designed to last no longer than the warranty.
Some examples:
These days, it is the "in thing" not to properly lubricate potentiometers. You turn on the volume control, and it feels like there is sand in it. (This is out of the box). You can turn it about 5-10 times, and kiss it goodbye.
Some of the small buttons also don't work consistently. You have to push really really hard on some, and others a lot less. Still it's quite irritating. The contacts corrode easily, and have had no protectants applied.
Bad engineering is another factor: Weather station electronics that had the PCB board and contacts exposed directly to the elements. User interface boards--with knobs and switches mounted on them--sharing space with surface mounted components...don't push those buttons too hard, now!
Computer Keyboards: I can't count how many of these that I go through. It don't matter how much you spend, the keys still start to bind up after a month or so use.
Anybody notice how items that used to carry a 3-5 year warranty now only come with a 1 year, and sport in the infamous "Made in China/Korea" logo? In the case of some hard drives...I've had them fail (3 of them) at about 1 month after the warranty period. One of the drives was rarely in operation. I guess this means we need to adjust our interpretation of MTBF? Not "running hours", but "sitting there hours".
Motor bearings: These usually go long before the warranty ever expires. I hope that the thermal protection in the motors has better quality than these bearings...
Laptop batteries: I don't need to say more.
Mainboards: I now have to replace mother boards every year and a half...it's too much to even ask for two years of service from them. (Even with "reputable" manufacturers.)
Camcorder CCDs that are not for use outside. The humidity damages the unit and renders it inoperable after 4 months of service. (Sorry kids, we have to film the football game in the air-conditioned living room. I might break this camera, if I take it outside!)
The list goes on...
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Most of these things aren't even designed to be repairable. You can't find the parts at Radio Shack. You can't even open the case without breaking it, because screws are a thing of the past...even if it would be something otherwise trivial to do.
All this stuff is generating probably 5 to 10 times the E-Waste compared to just a few years ago.
I've seen older stereo receiver/tuners last for 20 years. We had a TV that lasted 25. And, those old transistor radios that seem to have an indefinite life span.
When I was growing up, my father had quite a few of the old tube appliances around: radios, intercom systems, televisions, etc. Quite a few of the simpler ones used an "AC/DC" supply. I.E. run it from approx 120VAC(RMS), or 170VDC. One side of the power line was directly tied to the chassis, with no isolation in the transformer.
Depending on what way you plugged in the cord, any exposed metal parts or screws securing knobs could be close to ground (neutral potential) or hot (110-120VAC).
Depending on the house wiring, even neutral can float a few volts different from ground...it carries the current, and there is voltage drop in the wiring and connections.
I've worked as a programmer for quite a while, and one of the places was a mid-sized company still not wanting to migrate to a SQL back-end database platform, even though they had 400+ users, all sharing the same index files on the database...
Not a recipe for success...but it gets worse...and nature's fault, plus the AC maintenance company that was contracted to do the work on the central AC.
I am coding away, with the screen set at a resolution that made my boss uncomfortable at the time...132 col by 50. And, he is back in the server room, investigating an outage on a box that seemed to go down, or create an error message.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see that the man is uncomfortable, and getting frantic by the second.
By then, it really get's my attension, and he looks dead at me, and screams "somebody get me some fsck__g paper towels!".
I bolt up, noticing a nice shower in the server room, and bust the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom to get the roll out. (Better to break a $50 dispenser than have several $10k in the server room burn up from water getting into it.)
Still did have to replace a couple production servers, though.
The bad sealing job--on the roof--let the water leak around the AC unit, when the rain came. All the more reason to include the building facilities people on IT change management records.
Slashdot Mirror
Home:
I've got no kids home, here. I can tune out the pets. The TV is too hard for the other to figure out, so it's off. I skip personal calls, if I don't have the time.
I will peek at my weather radar from time to time. (I can still peek when I'm in the office on lessor applications.)
Food? Don't have time to eat during the day.
Exercise? Guilty there. I'll keep the cordless on mute and jog around the yard on conference calls that last 10 times longer than they should. (At least I get the exercise.)
In the Office:
My iPod is broken, and the chatter boggles my mind when trying to code (when I'm awake). While I do have a parrot for a pet, he's less of an issue on conference calls.
Since they killed off telecommuting 3 days a week, the 180 mile commute leaves me "dead but dreaming" for the better part of the morning into the afternoon. (Not enough hours in the day, and going through heavy city traffic).
Tiny laptop monitor, vs. self purchased dual screen. Painful chair, vs. ergonomic (purchased). No mouse / trackball / keyboard, but for said company laptop. Bootup time is 1-2 hours, where I can leave it on, working from home.
Yes, working from home is better for some.
--Robert
Where I work, we've got a reactionary CIO who still believes that gas is $0.92 a gallon. (He also throws "cloud computing" under the bus, among other things.)
Really though, I had been graded top of my class for two years running. June 3rd, 2011 came as quite a surprise when many others, including myself, were told they had to either commute or leave the company. At first, they offered severance. Then this option was taken away. (More complicated, but I'll keep this short.)
Now we've got folks upside down on mortgages driving 180+ miles a day with gas fast moving towards $5 / gallon. (On cars that will be more than upside down.) Can't sell the house to move closer, and nor is there work available locally. I understand a manager in Iowa--at his own expense--takes a plane to Colorado, and rents a hotel room for the two days he's required to be present, then flies back. (Our executive was the hard-line, he requires three days in office.)
The touted benefits of "social interaction" are altogether missing, as most of the folks in a globalized company are remotely connected anyways. The forced relocations should have been to Chennai, India and not the office 90 miles away. Even our department is scattered throughout 7 states.
So: Any hints on where to find telecommuting friendly employers? Most of what I see online are either scams or auctions where the "employer" takes the lowest bidder. You spend more time looking for work--on very short term "contracts"--then making a steady income. I'm on Dice, but nothing is telecommute and minimum travel is 180 miles a day, if I'm lucky.
Thanks and take care...
--Robert
In today's driving extremism, it would be nice to have a 360 view around your car for lane changes and awareness.
Some vehicles already have "blind spot monitors", which check 90-170 deg, relative bearing, and 190-270 deg, likewise. Others have "adaptive cruise control" and "collision moderation", using radar to check relative velocity of the vehicle ahead. These don't always exist in combination. Some are range sensing devices, and some doppler. Here's my wish list:
I'd like a good resolution 360 scan, with dopper capacity, like todays weather radars...
1) See a 360 view: I know limitations exist: "first reach targets" would conceal targets behind. Example: You're left lane, passing a truck in the middle lane, and have a hot-head passing the truck in the right lane. 360 radar won't see this, if the truck echo masks the passing car in the right lane. But it would assist in quick lane changes, in tight quarters, if used intelligently.
2) See the "burner" behind you: This would be the stray motorbike or car driving 150 mi/hr, where you thought the lane was clear. Doppler would highlight that and flag a warning. This should extend a km or so to alert, independent of range setting.
3) See what you are about to hit: Some car nav systems do this already. In a more general sense it should be heading/steering aware with a narrow beam spotting stopped or slow traffic directly ahead. It needs to be smart enough to avoid reflectivity from signs, trees, etc. on the side, based on vehicle velocity and rate of turn.
4) If "2" or "3" exist, hang up the cellphone and yell at you with a prerecorded message from Chef Gordan Ramsay: "Drive, and don't talk, you donkey!"
That would work for me. The nearest developing tech, for marine use, is Simard BR-24 4G, with 2.5 deg scan width in X-Band (9.41 GHz) at just 167mW. (Most marine radars are 4KW, and will burn your glasses off if sitting too close.) FCC requirements has vehicle radar running at a higher band and even lower power. Have to wait and see if someone get's the niche. (Wish I had the resources).
--Robert
I use a separate random user/password for each online account. If I post comments to "angryITworkers.com" (example), and the uid/password gets compromised, there's little to worry about. It cannot be used to access my bank account or other resources. Invalidate the compromised account, and damage will be very limited.
At my company, even the existing "non-overtime / exempt" allows the employer to put forth such abuse to IT employees that there were 4 recorded suicides out of the same building in a year. Oh... and that was when they treated their employees "better".
When you have a situation where an employer can ask for any number of hours as a condition of employment, it is ripe for abuse. It prolongs the buffer zone in which they can lay off IT workers, and pile the work on so 12-16 hour days are not uncommon. Meanwhile the folks left deal with the stress of the workload, no personal time for non work related responsibilities, and the constant nag in the back of their mind: "I'm I next to get the pink slip?" At a minimum, I know of several folks--including myself--developing stress related illness. Some of this is non-recoverable and will take years off your life.
My recommendation is to send the legislation straight to /dev/null, throw these buggers out at the next election, and push for actual improvements in working conditions. (Obviously things will have to be sequenced carefully to avoid an even stronger corporate rush to off-shore more IT work.)
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Change (n) - The actualization of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
Quite a few reasons I'm not a fan of IT, though I work there:
1. The jobs where you get to be creative no longer exist*. I started as an application developer / coder and thoroughly enjoyed it. (Though the boredom did set in as 2k of the 3k source code modules were strictly profit reports.)
*Unless you have a Ph.D. in computer science AND 35+ years experience in technologies that were only out for 2 years.
2. Where I am currently, IT is cannon fodder for every reduction. (This has been going on 2-4 times a year for the last 12 years.) Given the constant increase in additional responsibilities, hours are often unpleasant. They can get away with it, thanks to a loophole that allows abuse of "exempt" employees on overtime pay: If you are in IT they can ask you to work 24 hours a day as a condition of your employment, no overtime.
3. While I'm a "knowledge worker" in a "specialized field", I spend 90% of my time fighting the "cookie cutter" workstation image which breaks my development and security related tools. (Never mind the hour and a half reboots, corrupted file systems, occasional A/V scans in the middle of the day, failed automated installs and other periodic checks that make the machine unusable for at least 2 additional hours of the day.)
Had I seen all this coming, I would have left programming as a hobby and found some other way to make a living.
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Change (n) - The actualization of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
That is very much me. The IBM Model-M is the only keyboard that lasts me more than a couple weeks. Back in the mid 90's, my IT dept was a little frustrated as I'd finish off the stock Dell and newer IBM keyboards in as little as 2 weeks. They finally found an old "M" and told me if I broke that one, there is no hope. When they talk about pounding code? Yes. Literally.
Take care...
I agree: If you have to switch between keyboard and mouse frequently, it really does slow things down. For the sake of usability, I've always coded applications to fully support keyboard navigation and shortcuts. Poor application design often does have me turning a bit purple when I'm trying to get work done.
Having picked up on UNIX several years back, I also think that it's best practice to create command-line interface in addition to a GUI where practical. In my line of work, automation through shell scripts means getting the job done.
My learning started on the old Commodore computers, where I managed 80WPM on a modified hunt & peck. Later, I did take touch typing and was glad for it. (It makes it easy to spot mistakes as you type.) School had a range of equipment from the old mechanicals to IBM Selectrics and even newer models.
I know that the tablets and smartphones do require alternate methods. In my experience, the best one I've had was the palm Treo. With the touch screens it's a last resort to actually send information out on a smart phone. I still need my full sized keyboard.
Take care...
CmdrTaco,
Good luck on your change of career and best of luck. I've been a long time reader and enjoy the site.
Take care and hope all is well.
--Robert
I've heard of cases where people were charged for taping their arrests or interactions with police. I'd say if an officer compels an individual to not record the proceedings, the officer should be charged with obstruction of justice. The recording may have information pertinent should the case end up in court.
Agreed: It is the estuaries and salt marshes. It's the coastlines that have the greatest biodiversity, and therefore the most activity. Most of the open ocean is quiet, when it comes to sea life. The shallow areas got the vegetation, the sunlight, etc. Sea grass cannot grow below a certain depth. It's these shallow muddy areas that fish thrive in, leave eggs, and birds feed. The water is warmer, and the sea grass beds are food for Manatees, as well as providing shallow warm areas to swim in.
What I saw in LA state made me and a buddy sick. I'd say 10 days, and it's here where I live.
I'll help with cleanup, but no more swimming, and time to sell everything off and immigrate to Australia.
My taking is--if the emergency response equipment is not available--drilling should never have started. And, wow, I thought the Exxon Veldez was scary. Exxon was a one shot event. This gross misconduct is still going on, this very minute.
Some theorize the flow rate is even up to 4M gal/day. Recalling the Exxon Veldez, it was a one time shot of 10.8M petrol. This fiasco has been going on for > 30 days.
I really like the second paragraph, though I don't think it would adequately plug it. Maybe a layer of concrete--then toss them in--and more concrete.
Thirty-thousand horsepower pumps with high pressure drilling "mud", injected into the system, backwards. That is a lot of pressure feeding into ruptured pipes, which they think may be holding back the maximum flow. Could it make it worse? I'd say the possibility exists. It's an unknown.
As I understand it, the system failed on the well sealing process, when a cost savings measure was introduced: Replacement of the drilling "mud"--in the upper third of the column--with water to speed production. (It seems to me that "savings" were the whole idea behind the projects, at the expense of something you cannot put a price tag on.)
I'd say their "mud shot" will be met with failure, as well: Now you are resisting a high pressure flow on a source thousands of feet below the sea floor that has momentum.
Yet, BP has resisted scientific involvement, and even threatened reporters attempting to document the spill with arrest.
BP says there is no way to measure the flow, and that is a lie. We've had doppler radar since 1988, and I know doppler sonar would work; you can hear the difference in engine noise as they drive past. Doctors use the same tech to monitor cardiac conditions non-invasively. Yet they are not allowed in.
I'd say that the failure to release information should fall under Obstruction of Justice. Though I am certainly hoping that the courts are working hard to make an example out of these donkeys.
I've thought of it, myself. Though we do have some non-nuclear options, especially if they are designed in such a shaped charge as to not make a crater, but create an intense shear in the horizontal plane. It would need to be thick enough to bury the pipe and stop the leak. A spherical shock-wave would probably only make things worse.
Our GBU-43/B has quite a punch at > 22k lbs material.
Also, I was out at a beach 4 mi north of Venice, FL today, and the volatiles were certainly killing the sea breeze. The bulk is still better than 100 nm off shore, but on a light WNW wind reach, it was enough to have you clearing your throat. (Worse than allergy season, BTW).
The water is still clean, but I fear it might not be there much longer.
I guess NOAA has to build a new computer model for trajectories further south of 27.1*N. Models last night definitely had an indication of loop current entrainment.
Looking at the size of this, I don't think that you can put a price tag on it. Even if they seized all assets--personal and corporate owned--it still wouldn't do justice. (Unless someone can make a time machine real quick, and have the place raided about 24 hours before.)
I've been tracking for some time, and I think 210,000 US gal / day is too low. My conservative estimate is 5x that, given rate of change on the size of the NOAA trajectory plots, and on some satellite imagery I've looked at.
and searched for Videos entitled 'F.*k Viacom'. I watched as many as I could. Let's them put that in their database. Show them how you feel.
This year, the NWS has started the installation of RPG Build 10. This, which also requires an upgrade of the network at the forecast office--will increase the resolution of the WSR-88Ds enough to essentially double the range.
Upgrade status: NWS Level II Radar Recieve Status
03 - Build 10 installed & the network updated to provide the LDM veed.
04 - Build 10 installed, but lacking the network upgrade. Data is derived to fit the legacy Level-II bandwidth.
NULL - Still Build 9, and no status of the network upgrade.
Reflectivity products will go from 1km bins x 360 radials to 250m bins x 720 radials. Velocity products will go from 250m bins x 360 radials to 250m bins x 720 radials. Range is increased to 300nm.
Common users will not see an improvement with the upgrade, unless they get a NEXRAD Level-II data feed. What you see on TV and the Internet are based on Level-III (more products, but much less resolution.)
Legacy Level-II to Level-III comparison: There are 4-bits resolution on Level-III products, whereas Level-II has 8-bits. Level-III doppler products are limited to 1km bins x 360 radials. (Build 11--next year--though maybe not publicly available, will introduce 5 new dual-polarization products, some having 16-bit resolution.)
The WSR-88D's still have quite a bit of life left in them... Granted, more nodes that have doppler products would be a big plus. But Super Resolution L-II data will give a big improvement.
I agree.
It always seems like technology is pushed just past the point of reliability.
I had exactly the same type of HD failure not even one month outside the warranty. It used to be at least 5-7 years before I would have problems with a drive. (By that time, the storage needs changed enough that the drive wasn't in "serious equipment" anyway.) It really came as a shock when I couldn't get a box to boot, and tested the drive on a FreeBSD installation, and found most of the sectors unreadable. (Windows wouldn't mount the drive, at all.)
Other examples:
I've never had luck with the 1.44MB floppies. I could do a full format, copy files, and find that the same drive could not read the files just 5 minutes later. The 720k disks never had this problem. Back in the C64 days, the 170k floppies would work for years before I had problems and had to get rid of one.
And 56k modems: I have never had one connect at full speed. The connections I could get would always drop, even on a clean phone line. I went back to my 28k--after trying several brands of the 56k--and never getting reliable results.
I have to ensure that I budget enough to replace a mainboard--and most of my other hardware that will be incompatible with the replacement--every two years. Just into the third year, the board will always fail.
I suppose we should soon expect optical storage, RAM and flash memory to meet the same minimal quality standards.
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Too much depends on reliable data storage, these days. Both hardware and software quality need improvement. I am really tired of spending more time maintaining equipment, than getting practical use out of it. It is all too convenient for hardware and software companies to exclude themselves from liability, and it needs to change.
I've been using Delphi since about 2000. I still do write apps with it occasionally.
.NET compatible version, last I heard. There is also a lot of support and additional libraries available overseas. It was quite a bit more popular in Europe than in the States.
Prior to using Delphi, I was using MS VB 5. I found Delphi to be about 500 times faster, and less likely to trash your project when moving it from one development workstation to another. Compared to VS 2003, the object libraries provided with the old Delphi 6 Pro were miles ahead in features and functionality, as well.
It was a little more difficult to get results from the debugger, compared with VB. But the other gains made it is worth while choice.
Delphi is still out there. They have a
(I wish they would release a Mac version.)
I agree with with theory on tactics similar to Enron:
I recall back in 1998, we were still around $1.05 a gallon, here. Summer came and went, and there were no spikes, no talk of "refinery issues" causing "supply problems", nor any talk of supply problems due to hurricanes, pipeline breaks, etc. Has usage increases? Yes, a news source--two or three years back--indicated an increase of only about 1-2%.
Some of it is China, India and the world economy. Some of it is supply of the crude required to make the gas, and problems with world politics, and dependence on foreign oil. But, this one is a problem right here at home.
Imagine the scenario:
1. Cut down severely the annual maintenance funding to keep the refineries operational. Why not even decommission a few? The cost of doing business has now been reduced, resulting in greater profit margins for the oil industry.
2. Now, when something happens--such as a hurricane, or equipment breakdown due to lack of maintenance--the lack of supply can result in even greater profits. These are maintained after the event to "rebuild the damaged infrastructure", even though there is plenty of money there already for that.
Enron did the same thing with their infrastructure.
They are living fat and happy at our expense, and we have no economic recourse to fight back. We basically have to live with it, because we need to get to work and back, operate machinery, etc. It's a win-win for them, and we lose, unless we can regain control through regulatory or legal means.
I don't drive an SUV...but since 1999, this has cost me thousands of dollars more than what I was paying prior to the increases. It sickens me to see all the excuses--every year--on why they need to drive prices still further. We don't just pay for this when we stop at the pump. Energy costs drive up the cost of everything: food, shipping, production, electric, trash disposal, etc. We pay again and again and again, when energy costs go up.
While Enron caused problems in a limited scope, the oil companies have made it a national issue. Their irresponsibility--in my opinion--is a danger to national security, and an act of treason, if we do have a real crisis. I would like to see the profits seized and put to work rebuilding the infrastructure, and some percentage put back into our pockets. Stronger regulations for the energy industry should also be instituted, preventing a recurrence.
Even so, we need to learn a lesson from this. One of these days, oil will go away. In the mean time, while alternative energy sources are investigated, we need to select more energy efficient means of transportation. We should also learn to how to save energy: more efficient driving styles, turning off equipment that doesn't need to be running, etc. This will give us more time to adjust to energy alternatives and reduce the impact when oil finally does dry up.
It seems that the only jobs that will remain available are those that require work on site. Most of these are low paying service related jobs, which don't even pay enough for basic survival. Couple that with the daunting increase in cost of living since 1999. (This is still going up.)
I think we need to look at reform, again:
If a company wants to be based in the US (and sell within the US) they should be required to maintain a quota of American workers in various positions. This should be audited by the Department of Labor. If not, they lose their charter or license.
Our economy was good before. I was able to pay my bills, and still have a good quality of life, with companies employing higher paid American workers, before the outsourcing craze. It can happen again...
I know there are pro's and cons to "protectionism", but that's my opinion. It may be one way of saving our economy.
I can understand the need to keep E-waste out of the environment...One thing that would good for both consumers and the environment: Quality improvement in products.
The last few years--especially--I've seen so many items that were either "broken out of the box", or designed to last no longer than the warranty.
Some examples:
These days, it is the "in thing" not to properly lubricate potentiometers. You turn on the volume control, and it feels like there is sand in it. (This is out of the box). You can turn it about 5-10 times, and kiss it goodbye.
Some of the small buttons also don't work consistently. You have to push really really hard on some, and others a lot less. Still it's quite irritating. The contacts corrode easily, and have had no protectants applied.
Bad engineering is another factor: Weather station electronics that had the PCB board and contacts exposed directly to the elements. User interface boards--with knobs and switches mounted on them--sharing space with surface mounted components...don't push those buttons too hard, now!
Computer Keyboards: I can't count how many of these that I go through. It don't matter how much you spend, the keys still start to bind up after a month or so use.
Anybody notice how items that used to carry a 3-5 year warranty now only come with a 1 year, and sport in the infamous "Made in China/Korea" logo? In the case of some hard drives...I've had them fail (3 of them) at about 1 month after the warranty period. One of the drives was rarely in operation. I guess this means we need to adjust our interpretation of MTBF? Not "running hours", but "sitting there hours".
Motor bearings: These usually go long before the warranty ever expires. I hope that the thermal protection in the motors has better quality than these bearings...
Laptop batteries: I don't need to say more.
Mainboards: I now have to replace mother boards every year and a half...it's too much to even ask for two years of service from them. (Even with "reputable" manufacturers.)
Camcorder CCDs that are not for use outside. The humidity damages the unit and renders it inoperable after 4 months of service. (Sorry kids, we have to film the football game in the air-conditioned living room. I might break this camera, if I take it outside!)
The list goes on...
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Most of these things aren't even designed to be repairable. You can't find the parts at Radio Shack. You can't even open the case without breaking it, because screws are a thing of the past...even if it would be something otherwise trivial to do.
All this stuff is generating probably 5 to 10 times the E-Waste compared to just a few years ago.
I've seen older stereo receiver/tuners last for 20 years. We had a TV that lasted 25. And, those old transistor radios that seem to have an indefinite life span.
When I was growing up, my father had quite a few of the old tube appliances around: radios, intercom systems, televisions, etc. Quite a few of the simpler ones used an "AC/DC" supply. I.E. run it from approx 120VAC(RMS), or 170VDC. One side of the power line was directly tied to the chassis, with no isolation in the transformer.
Depending on what way you plugged in the cord, any exposed metal parts or screws securing knobs could be close to ground (neutral potential) or hot (110-120VAC).
Depending on the house wiring, even neutral can float a few volts different from ground...it carries the current, and there is voltage drop in the wiring and connections.
Wow! Thought those days were over...guess not.
what would happen to your Internet connection when they key this transmitter up?
I've worked as a programmer for quite a while, and one of the places was a mid-sized company still not wanting to migrate to a SQL back-end database platform, even though they had 400+ users, all sharing the same index files on the database...
Not a recipe for success...but it gets worse...and nature's fault, plus the AC maintenance company that was contracted to do the work on the central AC.
I am coding away, with the screen set at a resolution that made my boss uncomfortable at the time...132 col by 50. And, he is back in the server room, investigating an outage on a box that seemed to go down, or create an error message.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see that the man is uncomfortable, and getting frantic by the second.
By then, it really get's my attension, and he looks dead at me, and screams "somebody get me some fsck__g paper towels!".
I bolt up, noticing a nice shower in the server room, and bust the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom to get the roll out. (Better to break a $50 dispenser than have several $10k in the server room burn up from water getting into it.)
Still did have to replace a couple production servers, though.
The bad sealing job--on the roof--let the water leak around the AC unit, when the rain came. All the more reason to include the building facilities people on IT change management records.